A new Snapdragons for Keynsham

We are very excited to announce that we have recently exchanged contracts on a property near Keynsham and are beginning a refurbishment programme that will turn it into a new Snapdragons Nursery.

The property, Ellsbridge House, was previously the vetinerary teaching centre for Norton Radstock College and sits in 2.2 acres of grounds beside the A4 just outside Keynsham between Bristol and Bath. The nursery is due to open in September 2012.

As with all our other nurseries, Snapdragons Keynsham will provide fun and stimulating learning supported by qualified and caring staff. The gardens and additional buildings at the site also offer an exciting opportunity to expand our Forest School sessions and outdoor learning, including growing our own resources and caring for nursery pets.

The nursery will create around 40 jobs and we have already begun actively seeking the high calibre staff that will allow us to maintain our existing exemplary standards. The new team will be supported by a team of Snapdragons colleagues who will share the expertise we have built up over the past 14 years. Additionally an on-site training centre will be established where professional development and training courses will be run by outside professionals and qualified Snapdragons Teachers for the staff from all of our nurseries.

We have some truly exciting plans that we know will benefit all the children, families and staff in Snapdragons and we really want you to be a part of it. Take a look at the plans and watch this space for more news. 

Congratulations Kimmeeeee

We would like to send BIG congratulations to Kim and James Sabin on the birth of their beautiful baby girl Isabella May. She arrived safely on Sunday morning at 3.17am and weighed in at 6lb 11oz. Well done Kim, we can't wait to meet your pink "Bobble" very soon XXX

Fun Fun Fun..........

Babies: This week we have had so much fun running around practising our physical skills. Well done Sebby and Henry who have just started walking you are doing really well. We had another great session with Musical Treehouse. Thank you Tara. Tara has said we know the songs really well now and are doing great. We love all the different instruments we get to play with.

We have been creative with tissue paper this week. We have been painting on tissue paper with water and looking at the beautiful colours left on the paper. We have been playing with shaving foam and watching and looking at all the different marks made in the foam. Well done Flo for making big circles.

We have been talking about our loved ones for ready for Valentines day. We all made and decorated a poem for them. We hope you all like them.

We have been wrapping up warm and playing in the garden. We have been playing on the slide, seesaw and  tunnel. 

Yey it snowed....We have created our own snow using shredded paper and created a little small world land. We have been walking the people through the snow.

Toddlers: This week we have done cooking. We made chocolate chip cakes and chocolate cornflake cakes. We have been playing with animals. We made a farm using the animals, barn and hay.

We have really enjoyed dressing up this week we have all been dressed in different outfits. Pedro loves being a princess. Austin came in as Batman and Jamie looks good as a doctor.

We made playdough this week and added chocolate powder to it and custard powder they smelt yummy! We have been bathing the babies in a bubble bath this was great fun Lily really enjoyed it.

Our book of the month is "Princess and the pea" so we have been reading this and getting to know the story. We have been creating Valentines pictures for our loved ones. 

We had a visit from PC Dave and his police van. This was very exciting we absolutely loved having him here. We heard his sirens and watched the flashing lights. 

We played with shaving foam and pretended it was snow. We had the people in there and were interested in making footprints in the snow. 

Pre-school: This week we have been playing in the water tray. We have been adding flavourings to the water to create different smells. We have been putting objects in to the water to see what can float and what can sink. 

We have been using number lines and looking to see what numbers  we can recognise. Well done Daniel you independently wrote numbers 6-10 on the white board.

We have been playing with sand and adding rice to it to make super sandcastles.

We have been making our own fruit smoothies. We chose the fruit we liked and to make them. They were yummy!

We had our own catwalk fashion show. We all dressed up in our favourite dressing up clothes and walked down the catwalk.

We played group games and really enjoyed a 'describe it' game, we have been describing animals and guessing which one it was.

We have been having races to get ready for the garden. We have been putting our coats, shoes, hats and gloves on independently.

Big steps: This week in big steps we have been carrying out experiments. We have been mixing items together to see what might happen. We have been predicting what will happen if we mix bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. 

Manager contact times

If you would like to contact Lyndsey Race week commencing 13.2.12 she will be available Tues-Fri 7.30-4.30. She is on holiday on Monday.

If you would like to contact Hayley Fitton week commencing 13.2.12 she will be available Mon-Fri 9.15-6.15.

Monthly invoicing and e-billing.

As many of you are aware, our invoicing system has now been upgraded and starting from this month (1/2/12) all invoicing responsibilities have been passed over to our new Finance and Administration team.

This will allow all of our Managers to concentrate their efforts on the day to day running of the nurseries and most importantly the children.

We do appreciate that this is a big change for many parents that have been with Snapdragons for a number of years but we are keen to delegate this growing responsibility to a team of professionals who are trained in this area.

For those of you who have signed up for our new e-billing service you will now have received your electronic bill which for the first time has been sent to you from our dedicated invoicing email address. Any invoicing queries or questions should be directed to this address where a team of accounts wizards will be waiting and happy to assist you.

The contact details for the Finance and Administration team is: accounts@snapdragonsnursery.com. At the present time we do not have a dedicated phone number for this team but this is currently being organised and in the mean time we are happy to call you back so that you can speak to someone directly if you provide a contact number at the time of enquiry.

Please ensure that all invoicing queries are sent via this method however your Nursery Manager will still be able to assist you with basic questions or account balances.

Any families that have not yet signed up for e-billing can do so by emailing the above address stating the name of their child and the nursery that they attend or by advising the Nursery Manager.

Thank you for your understanding and co-operation throughout this period of change.